Belgrave House (Number 8), Grosvenor House (Number 9) And Grosvenor Cottage

Belgrave House, Grosvenor House and Grosvenor Cottage, Tetbury

A large Classical townhouse of the mid-18th century with a 17th-century cross-gabled rear range, the whole property now divided into three separate units.

The buildings are constructed of rendered limestone rubble with ashlar stacks and roofs of a mixture of tile and Cotswold stone slate.

The main range fronting the Market Place is single depth and divided into units of three bays at number 8 and two bays at number 9, with a passageway between them giving access to the rear of the building and to Grosvenor Cottage. Number 8 Market Place has a roughly square plan, with the rear range, now Grosvenor Cottage, running southwards from its rear. Number 9 Market Place has a similar layout, with a shallow main range and two-bay, two-storey range running to the rear, with a further single-storey section to the south.

The main elevation facing the Market Place is five bays and three storeys with a parapet. The left stack is ashlar with a moulded cornice; the right stack is of squared and coursed rubble with a projecting cornice. Plat bands mark the divisions between ground and first, and first and second floors, with a moulded string course at the base of the parapet. The ground floor features a stone doorcase set to the left of centre, within number 9, with attached Roman Doric columns, a frieze with paterae cornice and pediment. The door is six-panel with four fielded and two flush panels in a recessed, panelled reveal and gives access to a through-passage to the rear. To the left is a 19th-century shop front with a three-light shop window with segmental-headed lights on a dwarf wall. To the right is a door with a plain overdoor light, followed by a wide, plate-glass sash window with a moulded stone architrave and central tooled keystone. An added 20th-century wooden doorcase in imitation of number 9, but without a frieze, stands to its right. The first floor contains five windows, all six-over-six pane sashes with moulded wooden architraves; those to the second floor have three-over-three sashes. All windows have stone sills and are set in shallow reveals. At the rear, the main range has a central doorway with a shallow batwing fanlight giving access to the through-passage via mid-20th-century metal-framed glazed doors.

The range to the rear of number 8 Market Place, known as Grosvenor Cottage, is a 17th-century wing of two storeys and attic with two cross-gables. The windows are a mixture of 18th and 19th-century sashes and later 20th-century replacements in the original 17th-century openings. Two small flat-roofed extensions dating from the mid to late 20th century have been added but are not of special interest. To the rear of number 9 Market Place is a two-bay, two-storey range running to the rear, with a further single-storey section to the south. The inner face has eight-over-eight sashes with stone sills to the first floor; the ground floor contains a window converted from a doorway with a moulded keystone. The through-passage between the two sections of the main range has a barrel-vaulted roof with timber mouldings at dado and cornice levels and a decorative flagstone floor.

Number 8 Market Place (Belgrave House) is now a single dwelling with a stair set against its rear wall and principal rooms at the front of each floor. Number 9 Market Place (Grosvenor House) has commercial premises on the ground floor with accommodation above. The interiors were not inspected in 2009. The rear range (Grosvenor Cottage) has a single-depth plan with a large stair hall to the north, adjoining the main range and formerly allowing access between the two ranges. The open-well stair has a closed string with elegantly turned newels, square balusters and a ramped and moulded handrail. There are cornices with egg-and-dart and reeded detailing, and a large, well-detailed ceiling rose with foliate motifs. Door cases off the hall have flat-moulded architraves with square terminals; the doors are various raised and fielded, panelled examples of the 18th and 19th centuries. The floor is laid with black and white diamond-set stone flags. The principal ground-floor room in this range has exposed beams, one re-used, perhaps from the same building, and a large, laterally set stone fireplace with a bressumer and a continuous moulding along the bressumer and running down the stone uprights. A modern stair is set against the west wall. The first floor has exposed chamfered beams with stepped stops. The roof structure, with twin purlins, collars and later queen struts, is partly exposed in the attic floor and includes chamfered and whitewashed timbers.

Grosvenor Cottage is the earliest surviving range on the site, constructed in the 17th century as a narrow range running back from the Market Place. It was joined in the mid-18th century by a large townhouse running along the street frontage, incorporating a passageway behind an entrance door which gives direct access to the rear courtyard and the main front of the rear range. The two ranges were linked through a grand stair hall, and the earlier building was retained as a service range. The main range was later divided into two houses, now Belgrave House and Grosvenor House at numbers 8 and 9 Market Place, and the rear range became a third, separate dwelling, now Grosvenor Cottage, around the turn of the 20th century. Some windows were replaced with modern examples during the mid to late 20th century, and two small flat-roofed extensions were added at about the same time.